Finding revenue through advertising...any tips?

[FishBowl]

My website follows three start-up businesses through blog posts and video uploads.

One of the businesses is run by a guy called Matt, and is called Sharabang Music. It's a band management company, and, as part of it, he is buying a double decker bus to use for promotions and transporting bands and their fans around gigs.

It's a really exciting time for him, and you can read more about it at www dot inafishbowl dot co dot uk. He's Fishbowl One.

Anyway, he is now looking to increase his revenue by selling advertising space on the side of his bus. Has anyone got any tips on finding companies and choosing the right ones for your business? Should adverts be relevant to your company or does it not matter? Any advice would be much appreciated and passed on to Matt. You can also message him on Twitter @fishbowlone.

[David White]

Think of the age, gender and other possible interests of who Matt's brand attracts. I assume it would be a mixed gender with 60+% girls mainly being in their teens.

I would think about mobile phone providers, computer game providers, clothing brands and any of the other relevant businesses that always chase these teens around looking to sell them their products.

[FishBowl]

Hi David,

Thanks for your response.

So what you're saying is that the advertising doesn't need to be directly related, but Matt would be most likely to sell the space to other businesses who might target the same audience? In this case, would you expect that Matt would do the market research and approach companies with statistics, or does he just advertise that space is available and let those companies see for themselves that it's a good spot for them?

I think this whole question of advertising brings up some really interesting ideas. In everyday life, we are bombarded with advertising wherever we go - even the side bar of this website is advert full! So, do you think adverts have become so ubiquitous with everything else in life, we no longer really register their presence unless they are of interest? So, essentially, does it really matter what's advertised on Matt's bus? Will people notice it anyway?

What are your thoughts/experiences in this?

[David White]

Advertising is indeed everywhere you look and many large outdoor spaces are almost invisible to many people even if it is 50 feet high. BUT if the advertising is something of interest then it will catch your attention and you will read it, just like a magazine and just like a website. If you are interested in football, anything football related will catch your attention, if you are interested in mobile phones/young trends then you will be attracted by related advertising.

Selling the space to directly related brands does not really make much sense on a lot of ocassions as you may end up driving people to your competition who may also be cautious about advertising with him. If you approach other related brands who want to target the same audience then they will be much easier to sell the idea to.

If he can't get any advertisers then make sure he makes advantage of the space and brands the bus completely with his own brand. That is really the first thing he should do if he wants to raise his record label but I know money is normally the issue.

[FishBowl]

Hi again David,

I see your point about advertising similar brands. It would be ideal if Matt could solely brand the bus with his own logo, but, as you said, money is the issue at this start-up stage.

I have passed on your advice to him. Thank you.

Does anyone know of anyone who might like to advertise with Matt?

[Jigsaw CCS]

Going forward from David's comments, I would agree that you should be looking at approaching companies that are in the similar demographic as those interested in live bands, simply because it's a 'tour' bus and not a council run one, that runs quite general adverts, usually films of different genres.

I would consider the types of bands that use the bus - if he's looking at very hard metal bands specifically, approach rock/metal clothing outlets or skateboarding/snowboarding companies etc. (For instance)

Once you've got an idea of which companies would be interested, do some basic research on bus advertising figures – "A typical advert on the side of a bus reaches 2,000 people a day on average" - those types of facts. That way, when you pitch the advertising space, you have something that says 'this is why it's worth the investment'

[FishBowl]

Thank you for that. Your input is really useful, and I do agree that targetting the areas that Matt's own followers may be interested in. I am not sure if he has a focus on a particular type of music but I'll speak to him.

I'd ring him now but he's not very well - it's a hard life being an entrepreneur!

If anyone else has any experiences or thoughts, please feel free to get in touch. You can follow more about what Matt's doing on www.inafishbowl.com and via Twitter @fishbowlhq and @fishbowlone.